Featured Research

Geologists are finding that the most important tools in their fieldwork on groundwater arsenic pollution are women and children armed with pamphlets and testing kits. The research examines arsenic levels in the groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. While trying to understand how the naturally occurring arsenic gets into groundwater, the researchers are helping Bengalis identify contaminated water sources so they can make more informed decisions about where to dig wells.

Share This

A Kansas State University geologist and graduate student are finding that the most important tools in their fieldwork on groundwater arsenic pollution are women and children armed with pamphlets and testing kits.

Related Articles

"When going into a foreign land, you need the common people's help, support and understanding of the work you are doing," said Saugata Datta, a K-State assistant professor of geology.

Datta's research examines arsenic levels in the groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. In his quest to understand how and why the naturally occurring arsenic gets into groundwater, Datta is helping Bengalis identify contaminated water sources so they can make more informed decisions about where to dig wells as they look for cleaner water. At K-State, Datta is joined by Andrew Neal, a master's student in geology from Byron, Ga.

"We are targeting the women and children 13 to 15 years old, because they are the most available people, more so than the men of the family," Datta said. "These women are not formally educated, but when it comes to this type of suffering, they have a huge voice and they can really articulate the message very clearly to their neighbors and their own families."

The researchers give women and children information about how sediment traits like color and texture may indicate arsenic contamination. They also arm them with arsenic testing kits to use when wells are being drilled in their communities. If these water testing kits indicate high levels of arsenic, they can send a sample to a laboratory in the city for further testing before more contaminated water is distributed to the community. These tests are being done for both shallow and deep aquifers in those districts.

Although much research and action has been done to mitigate arsenic contamination in Bangladesh, the researchers said the process has been slower in India.

"They are very nice people in West Bengal, but when you talk to them you see that they are very frustrated," Neal said. "They want to have some way of knowing how they can get rid of this problem. They want to know where to get clean water to drink so their kids don't get sick."

Datta said that some of the wells that the researchers tested have 30 times more arsenic than is accepted by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Datta said the effects of arsenic in groundwater aren't apparent immediately but rather build up over time. It causes skin lesions and skin cancer that spreads to other parts of the body. It can lead to paralysis and organ failure.

"Technically this is a natural source of pollution," Datta said. "The major hypothesis is that the Himalayan river systems that feed the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta have been carrying down sediments that are the major source of arsenic. These sediments in the form of specific minerals and in the right environmental conditions trigger the release of arsenic into the groundwater."

The researchers suggest that as the arsenic-rich water enters the river, the chemistry causes it to precipitate and adhere to iron-bearing minerals in the sediments.

In effect, they said, the sediments form an "iron curtain" to keep the arsenic out of surface water in the river. But recycling of these arsenic-laden sediments to the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta aquifer may lead to further groundwater contamination.

Datta is collaborating with Karen Johannesson at Tulane University and John F. Stolz at Duquesne University. Results of studies by Datta and Columbia University researchers in the Meghna River in Bangladesh appeared Oct. 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Neal presented their research at the Geological Society of America meeting Oct. 18-21 in Portland, Ore.

Datta and Neal will be conducting more research in India next year. The researchers also are working to collaborate with the Geological Survey of India and Indian universities with the idea that those students could accompany them in the field.

Datta also would like to have more students from K-State -- graduate and undergraduate alike -- conduct this research in India. His ultimate goal would be to also bring some of the Indian university students to K-State for further research on campus.

More From ScienceDaily

More Earth & Climate News

Featured Research

Mar. 3, 2015 — While studying a ground-nesting bird population near El Reno, Okla., a research team found that stress during a severe weather outbreak of May 31, 2013, had manifested itself into malformations in ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Researchers studied quartz from the San Andreas Fault at the microscopic scale, the scale at which earthquake-triggering stresses originate. The results could one day lead to a better understanding ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — The 3-D printing scene, a growing favorite of do-it-yourselfers, has spread to the study of plasma physics. With a series of experiments, researchers have found that 3-D printers can be an important ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Researchers have developed a new way of rapidly screening yeasts that could help produce more sustainable biofuels. The new technique could also be a boon in the search for new ways of deriving ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — For almost a century, scientists have been puzzled by a process that is crucial to much of the life in Earth's oceans: Why does calcium carbonate, the tough material of seashells and corals, ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Major cities in the UK are falling behind their international counterparts in terms of their use of smart technologies, according to a new study. The research has found that smart cities in the UK, ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — To simulate chimp behavior, scientists created a computer model based on equations normally used to describe the movement of atoms and molecules in a confined space. An interdisciplinary research ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Rather than just waiting patiently for any pollinator that comes their way to start the next generation of seeds, some plants appear to recognize the best suitors and 'turn on' to increase the chance ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Methane emissions are strongly reduced in lakes with anoxic bottom waters. But – contrary to what has previously been assumed – methane removal is not always due to archaea or anaerobic bacteria. ... full story

Featured Videos

Looted and Leaking, South Sudan's Oil Wells Pose Health Risk

AFP (Mar. 3, 2015) — Thick black puddles and a looted, leaking ruin are all that remain of the Thar Jath oil treatment facility, once a crucial part of South Sudan&apos;s mainstay industry. Duration: 01:13
Video provided by AFP

Related Stories

Oct. 13, 2014 — Arsenic poisoning is widespread in Bangladesh, where ground water is contaminated by runoff from the Himalayas. Now researchers have developed two simple and cheap methods that well drillers can use ... full story

Nov. 2, 2011 — The source of arsenic in India's groundwater continues to elude scientists more than a decade after the toxin was discovered in the water supply of the Bengal delta in India. Geologists have now ... full story

June 1, 2010 — Researchers offer solutions to poisonous well-water crisis in southern Asia. They have reviewed what scientists understand about this groundwater contamination crisis and offer solutions for the ... full story

May 27, 2010 — About 60 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water, dramatically raising their risk for cancer and other serious diseases. Because most of the ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.